WEATHERING the STORM Defending Human Rights in Turkey’S Climate of Fear

WEATHERING THE STORM Defending human rights in Turkey’s climate of fear AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL 1 “I have a small bag ready at home. Every morning I Flowers on the Human Rights sculpture, Yuksel contact two people [to let them know I am still here]. Street Ankara: Since May 2017 the sculpture, which depicts a woman reading I am prepared for what may come.” the UN Declaration of Human Rights, has been Şebnem Korur Fincancı, human rights defender and forensic doctor, facing prosecution for participating encircled by police barriers, in the solidarity campaign for the Kurdish newspaper Özgür Gündem, February 2018. to prevent it being used as location for protests. © Private A chilling climate of fear emergency and during the crackdown after society actors in smear campaigns are is sweeping across Turkish the coup attempt, for example on the arbitrary often a precursor for arrest or prosecution. dismissal of numerous public sector workers As a result, sections of society most at risk society as the Turkish in No end in sight – Purged public sector of human rights abuses – such as women government continues workers denied a future in Turkey as well as and girl survivors of sexual and gender- on the serious allegations of the use of torture based violence, LGBTI people, refugees and to use the state of in the immediate aftermath of the attempted migrants – are denied crucial support and emergency to shrink the coup, Independent monitors must be allowed solidarity as they struggle to defend their space for dissenting or to access detainees amid torture allegations. rights. The climate of fear that exists leads to self-censorship, with activists being afraid to alternative views. This briefing focuses in particular on the speak up because they might be thrown in jail ways in which the rights to freedom of or attacked for what they said. Those who are defending human rights expression, assembly and association, to are on the front line – both as the targets liberty and security and to fair trials have It is precisely because the human rights of authorities’ attacks and at the heart of been eroded. Repressive measures were defenders in this briefing play such a crucial courageous resistance to attempts to silence initially directed at those suspected of role in society, and their work impact so many, all opposition. participating in the coup attempt including that the government has such an interest journalists, followed by academics, judges in curtailing their actions. Indeed, because The state of emergency, declared in July and prosecutors. While these attacks the targeting of human rights defenders is 2016 as a temporary exceptional measure have continued, the net has widened to so pernicious and its effects reach far and in the wake of a violent attempted coup, has increasingly include the relatively small but wide into many areas of society, that the been repeatedly renewed and now forms vibrant independent civil society in Turkey. international community has a responsibility an increasingly permanent feature of how This includes several prominent human rights to help protect this space for expression, Turkey is governed. The bloody coup attempt defenders like Taner Kılıç, then Chair and dissent, protest, services and other human resulted in the deaths of more than 240 now Honorary Chair of Amnesty International rights work of independent civil society and people. These crimes have not just targeted Turkey, and Amnesty International Turkey human rights defenders in Turkey. individuals, they have also represented Director, İdil Eser, arrested in June and July an attack of human rights and freedoms. 2017. Almost a year later, Taner Kılıç remains It is time for Turkey to lift the current state The need to protect people from such imprisoned while İdil Eser has been released of emergency and the draconian measures violence is clear and those responsible for while their trial proceeds. This briefing places that came with it that go beyond legitimate unlawful killings must be brought to justice. these and many other cases in the context of measures to combat threats to national However, justice cannot be achieved by a deliberate and widespread attack on civil security, before there is no independent, riding roughshod over the very rights that the society, meant to instil a climate of fear and critical civil society left in Turkey. The Turkish government has an obligation to uphold. The to shrink the space for dissent, expression authorities must ensure the release of human consequences for civil society, human rights and activism. rights defenders and other civil society actors, and the people and organizations seeking to who have been detained and prosecuted defend those rights have been profound and At a time of widespread human rights in the absence of credible evidence, and devastating. Mass dismissals and the arbitrary violations, the vital work of civil society refrain from prosecuting anyone in the future and abusive use of the criminal justice activists, including human rights defenders, for their legitimate human rights work. The system, including anti-terrorism laws, have is being curtailed by the authorities’ use of authorities must roll back the climate of fear affected huge swathes of the population. arbitrary detention and prosecution, threats and intimidation by positively recognizing of violence and intimidation, the closure human rights and all who stand up for them. Amnesty International has documented of organizations and the banning of public The international community must use all a wide range of human rights violations events. Articles in pro-government media its powers and influence to reverse the that have taken place under the state of and attacks on social media targeting civil downward trend of human rights in Turkey. 2 WEATHERING THE STORM AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL 3 DEFENDING HUMAN RIGHTS IN TURKEY’S CLIMATE OF FEAR WHAT IS THE STATE OF EMERGENCY? The state of emergency, A BROKEN LEGAL SYSTEM On 20 March, the European Court of Prominent individuals such as civil society bolstered by over 30 Human Rights issued its rulings on their leader Osman Kavala and Celalettin Can, Within days of the state of emergency cases, finding violations of the rights to a human rights defender and once advisor executive decrees that being declared, high-profile journalists liberty and security and to freedom of to the government on the peace process bypassed parliamentary and and commentators were rounded up and expression. At the time of writing, Mehmet between the state and the armed Kurdistan subsequently prosecuted. Large numbers Altan remains in prison awaiting the Workers Party (PKK), are currently in judicial scrutiny, provides of experienced and trained judges, outcome of his appeal. prison awaiting trial on such charges. the context and legal prosecutors and other state officials were opportunity for a worsening detained, accused of supporting Fethullah SILENCING CIVIL SOCIETY ACTORS Also among those charged under these laws Gülen, the self-exiled cleric blamed by are several other prominent human rights crackdown on civil society, the government for the coup attempt. Broadly worded, vague anti-terrorism laws defenders, including Amnesty International’s an unprecedented wave of This purge of the judiciary, as well as have been used to criminalize dissenting Taner Kılıç, then Chair and now Honorary 107,000+ 100+ the prosecutions of lawyers, a disregard opinion. Many of those caught in an Chair of Amnesty International Turkey, and detentions and prosecutions, for constitutional court decisions and ever-widening net of legal repression have Amnesty International Turkey Director, İdil public sector employees, among them of those dismissed, had been many more problems in the judiciary, has been prosecuted and imprisoned despite Eser, arrested in June and July 2017. Almost and the erosion of fair trial trade unionists and human rights reinstated by the State of seriously undermined the ability of the the absence of any material evidence that a year later, Taner Kılıç remains imprisoned defenders, summarily dismissed for Emergency Commission by the rights in Turkey. criminal justice system to deliver fair and they had indeed committed a recognisable while İdil Eser has been released while their their activism or for exercising their end of February 2018. These statistics show the scale and impartial processes. criminal offense. trial proceeds. See more on their cases on page 10. right to freedom of expression. unmistakable pattern of the crackdown. The cases of academic Mehmet Altan and columnist Şahin Alpay are indicative of the extent to which the rights to redress and ATTACKS ON LAWYERS fair trial have been severely affected. In There are no official statistics about the number of lawyers being investigated, THE STATE OF 100,000+ 50,000+ January 2018, first instance courts refused prosecuted and detained awaiting trial, but it is estimated that several hundred to implement two separate Constitutional lawyers are facing criminal proceedings under the post-coup crackdown. Some 110 people have faced criminal people imprisoned pending trial. Court rulings that the men were unlawfully members of the Contemporary Lawyers Association (ÇHD) and Lawyers for Freedom EMERGENCY AT investigations and potential detained. In February, Mehmet Altan Association (ÖHD), two associations that have been closed down by executive prosecution. A GLANCE was convicted and sentenced to life decree, are subject to restrictions in carrying out their duties as lawyers because they imprisonment without parole. In contrast, are facing criminal proceedings. Declared on 20 July 2016. Şahin Alpay was released, subject to house arrest, on 16 March, following a “Because I am being prosecuted myself, I cannot represent people in the investigation stage Renewed seven times, for three second Constitutional Court ruling that – so when I went to see a couple of lawyers who were being held in police custody, I was not months each time. his rights had been further violated by allowed.

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